


5:00

by Jiemme



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Chat still flirts at the face of danger, F/M, Ladybug's totally confident but not chill, spy AU, the trust between Ladybug and Chat is strong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-23
Updated: 2015-12-23
Packaged: 2018-05-08 18:24:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5508122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jiemme/pseuds/Jiemme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ladybug and Chat Noir deal with a bomb that would explode within 5 minutes. [Spy AU]</p>
            </blockquote>





	5:00

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Miraculous Ladybug.
> 
> This is a Christmas present to one of my friends in real life who likes Miraculous Ladybug like me! We live islands apart (literally) so I'll settle with giving her a fanfic first. :3 This is based on the game "Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes," which is a great game for friends! 
> 
> To you, the person reading this, Merry Christmas! :D I hope you enjoy your Christmas Eve. Go eat lots of fantastic food and celebrate with your loved ones and open your presents! You deserve it!

“Chat Noir, come in. I repeat: Chat Noir, come in.”

Ladybug grumbled in exasperation, tapping the padded microphone of her headphones. That darn _cat_ wasn’t replying, and their life was on the line as she spoke. Headquarters just had to assign the both of them to a bomb ticking closely to its explosion, and Chat volunteered himself to detonate it. She, on the other hand, searched for the bomb detonation manual hidden at the other side of the building. It took her minutes to decode the password of the safe holding the manual inside.

“Chat Noir? Chat Noir? Can you hear me?” she asked, tapping her headphones now. Was he stuck in a maze of lasers or something? She glanced at her black watch. _6:24._

They only had approximately six minutes to detonate the bomb. Without even checking her pulse on the wrist, Ladybug was aware of the quickening pace of her heartbeat, the blood rushing from anxious adrenaline. She quickly wiped off the beads of sweat formed on her forehead, taking deep breaths as she took out the manual and a flashlight from her very slim bag.

“Chat, do you copy?” she asked again, voice thick with worry. Her eyebrows scrunched together as she checked her watch. _5:51._

Distortion suddenly rang from her headphones, the fuzzy noises slowly fading into silent clarity. And then, “I’ve found the bomb, My Lady.”

He spoke in such an eager tone, Ladybug couldn’t wait to hit him with her flashlight once they finish this mission. If they lived to tell the tale.

“What took you so long?” she hissed, ruffling through the pages of the manual. She could hear Chat’s faint chuckle from line, and then a sudden _thump!_ as though something fell.

“Sorry, sorry, Ladybug. I had to dance my way through a room of lasers and booby traps,” he reasoned. “As graceful as I am, I could never be as nimble as you when it comes to a room of lasers.”

Ladybug couldn’t help but smile – thank goodness he couldn’t see her. “No time for kissing up, Chat. What does the bomb look like?” she said quickly. They had less than six minutes!

“My, my, kissing up? Does that mean I get a kiss after this?” the boy teased from the other line. Ladybug groaned from frustration in reply.

“There will be no kissing, especially if the bomb explodes, Chat. Focus,” she reprimanded, tracing a finger through the table of contents.

Chat coughed before she heard a soft thump. “Alright. We have… a red button, five wires, some keypads with symbols, and a password. The bomb’s inside another box, though. It has a digital lock.”

“Digital lock?” Ladybug quickly checked the first page, of which it says _How to Open the_ _Bomb Case._ It had a picture of a box inside a transparent box with a digital screen with a digital keypad below. The picture beside it showed the box’s side view from the right, a large blue button at its bottom center.

“Chat, check the right side of the box,” she instructed, crossing her fingers that it was there. She wondered why Headquarters didn’t give them camera equipment for this.

She could hear noises of Chat shifting and moving. “Found it, My Lady.”

Ladybug beamed, squinting her eyes at the instructions below the picture. “Press the blue button. Before proceeding to defuse the bomb, observe for the bomb’s serial number,” she read aloud. Below the instructions was another picture of the real bomb with a white sticker lined with red holding a combination of numbers and letters. She heard a soft _ping!_ and an unlocking sound that followed.

“Okay, I found the serial number. Should I read it out loud?”

_5:00._

“N-no,” Ladybug answered, unsure. The instructions didn’t say to memorize it anyway. She flipped the page to see instructions on cutting wires. Chat must have had enough common sense to bring his army knife apart from his baton, knowing that they were assigned with this.

“Chat, how many wires are there?” she asked as she analyzed the instructions on the page separated by the number of wires present in the bomb. The picture on the page showed a wire module of the bomb containing differently colored wires.

“Chat?” she repeated, heartbeat racing faster. _4:41._

“Five. Five wires,” he answered. Ladybug darted her eyes to the _Five Wires_ section of the page.

“Colors. Top to bottom.”

“Red. White. Blue. Yellow. Yellow.”

“Red, white, blue, two yellow,” she whispered to herself.

  1. _**If there is a black wire, cut the third wire.**_
  2. _**If there are no blue wires, cut the fifth wire.**_
  3. _**If there are two red wires, cut the fourth wire.**_
  4. _**If there is at least one yellow wire, cut the first wire.**_
  5. _**If none of the above comply, cut the second wire BEFORE cutting the fifth wire.**_



“Chat, cut the first wire,” she said, hands shaking on the page. This better work…

_Ding!_

“Alright! You definitely are my lucky charm,” he cheered.

“We need more than luck to get this done,” she breathed. _4:34._ “Let’s go with the keypads. What do you see?”

“Gamma. Rho. Pi. Chi.”

“Huh?” she chirped.

“Ladybug, these are Greek letters,” Chat reminded, voice steady. “Don’t tell me you…”

“I only know what Pi looks like, okay? Don’t judge me,” she retorted with a shaky voice, cheeks heating up.

“Calm down, My Lady. You’ll see me alive after this,” he replied in a soothing tone. “Okay. Gamma looks like the letter V, Chi looks like the letter X, and Rho looks like a small letter P.”

She exhaled in relief as she saw the symbols on the page. “Got it. Thanks, Chat.”

“Just take it easy. We’ll survive,” he reassured. “I won’t die until my wish gets granted.”

Ladybug chuckled as she read the page. “Which is?”

“Getting a kiss from you, of course.”

She held back a smile. “Can it, Kitty. I’m reading instructions to save our lives.”

She traced her finger on the page. _The symbols are aligned based on their order in the Greek alphabet. Press the buttons according to their order in reverse._

“Okay, so Alpha’s first in the Greek alphabet, right?” she whispered. _4:09._

“Yes, yes.”

“Hmm…” She read the symbols in reverse, mentally screaming at herself to calm down. “Um… press the buttons in this order. Uhh… uhh…”

“Take your time, My Lady.”

“Uhh… Chi… Rho, Pi, Gamma!” she exclaimed. She heard sounds of four taps, each with their own _ding!_ sounds.

“Alright! Shall we proceed to the password?”

Ladybug nodded to herself as she flipped the pages until she saw the chapter title _How to Decode Passwords._ A small table of simple non-palindromic five-lettered words were found below. _3:52._

“Uhh… Ladybug? This… apparently, is Password 1.”

Her eyes widened, searching the page for the number of passwords they had to decode. _Minimum of 2, maximum of 4,_ it said. They had to be fast with this. They had less than four minutes left. She read the basic instructions at the top of the page first.

“Um, it says here, determine the first letter of the combination by tapping the first box of the digital screen. Base the next letters on the letter before said letters. Use the up and down buttons that appear to cycle through different letters of different combinations. Possible passwords are found at the bottom of this page. Change the first letter of the word if the combination is not available in the list of possible passwords. Press submit after inputting the correct word.” 

“In less than twenty words, please,” Chat cried. Little did he know that she took her time in absorbing what it truly meant.

“Tap the first box of the digital screen in the password module,” she answered. “Chat?”

“Already done. Letter T appeared.”

She scanned the table for possible passwords that started with letter T. _These, There, Table, Train._

“Um… what’s the next letter?”

“C.”

“Change it,” she demanded.

“H.”

“Move on to the next letter of the word.”

“E.”

“Okay,” she said, breathing in deeply and exhaling. “What’s the next letter?”

“R.”

“Go on.”

“E. There? Is that a possible password?”

“Yes! Press submit now!” she said, trying her best to keep her voice steady. A loud _ding!_ relieved her of her worries.

“Password 2. First letter is S.”

“Let’s see here,” she mumbled. “Space, Steam, Scout. Check for letters P, T, and C.”

After five seconds, Chat let out a dissatisfied whine. “None of those letters are in the second box!”

“Change the first one, quick!” she replied.

“Letter G,” Chat said immediately. “Possible words?”

“Only Grain!” she screeched. _3:22._

“Okay, there’s an R… and an A…and I… N…” _Ding!_ “Got it!”

Ladybug exhaled. This was not good for her at all. She was used to being under pressure, but this was the very first time she had to face a bomb. She knew it wouldn’t be easy working on this solo, but she would never forgive herself if she made one screw up that could cost her best partner’s life.

“Password 3. First letter’s S. What are the possible words again?” Chat said, voice filled with determination. Ladybug read the three words again.

“Okay, there’s a P… A… C… yes, it spells Space!”

“You have such great spelling skills, Chat,” Ladybug giggled as she heard that familiar _ding!_ again. She checked her watch and sighed. They had less than three minutes left.

“No more passwords. Just the button left! And we have at least two minutes to spare!”

Ladybug quickly turned the page for buttons. “Chat? It’s red, right?”

“Yes. It also says ‘DEFUSE’ on it.”

 

> 1\. _**If the button is red, go to number 4.**_  
>  4. _ **If the button says STOP, go to number 5. Otherwise, go to number 9.**_  
>  9. _ **If the button says ABORT, go to number 12. Otherwise, hold the button down.**_

“Chat, hold the button down!” she said. She heard a buzz, and Chat gasped.

“What happened? Chat?” she asked worriedly.

“T-there’s this tiny circle beside it with a w-white light,” he stammered. “What do I do?”

Ladybug scanned the entire page, but nothing discussed about the circle with white light. She turned the page, wishing there were instructions for it. Much to her relief, it was the continuation of instructions for the button.

“If the circle beside the button lights up a blue color… no, it’s white… turns yellow… no… ah! If the circle beside the button lights up a white color, release the button when the countdown timer has the number 1 at the minutes position,” she said.

“Wait, what?!” Chat screeched. It took Ladybug a few seconds to realize... oh no. The button was wasting their time!

“Are you sure that’s the last module on the bomb, Chat? Please check if there’s something at its back,” she said. _2:14._

“Oh… yeah… there are three sets of wires here…” he replied, voice getting softer. “B-but we can manage!”

Ladybug grimaced, her leg shaking in anxiety. Chat couldn’t let go of the button or it would explode, but they had to hurry up or they wouldn’t have time to manage with the wires.

“Ladybug, you alright there?” Chat asked.

“I should be the one asking you, Chat,” she replied. “You’re the one with the bomb.”

Chat laughed – she could imagine his smug smile. “I’m not worried, My Lady. If anything, you’re doing a great job giving me instructions. We’d be screwed if we reversed places, probably.”

“Don’t say that, Chat. Even if it isn’t obvious, I’m having goosebumps right now with this situation,” she scoffed. “And you’re good in following instructions; I’m just reading whatever’s on this manual.”

“Nonsense. I wouldn’t be able to follow instructions if you don’t read them. And hearing your voice soothes my nerves, y’know?” he answered calmly. Ladybug grinned at his words.

_Ding!_

“Oh! You let go of the button already, right?” She heard shuffling again.

“Turned the bomb around. Let’s start with this first box of six wires.”

“What colors?”

“Hmm… Red. Red. Red. Green. Yellow. Blue.”

  1. **_If there are black wires, cut the third wire._**
  2. **_If there are two white wires, cut the fourth wire._**
  3. **_If there are no blue wires, cut the first wire._**
  4. **_If there are three yellow wires, cut the fifth wire._**
  5. **_If there is at least two green wires, cut the sixth wire_**
  6. **_If none of the above comply, cut the second wire._**



“Chat, second wire.” _1:37._

_Ding!_

“Great work, My Lady. We have another box of six wires. Green. Red. Blue. Yellow. White. Green.”

“Sixth wire.”

_Ding!_

“Ladybug! One last box of wires! four wires! Black. Red. White. Blue!”

  1. _**If there are two black wires, cut the third wire.**_
  2. _**If there are no white wires, cut the first wire.**_
  3. _**If there is a yellow wire, cut the second wire.**_
  4. _**If none of the above comply, cut the fourth wire.**_



“Chat! Fourth wire!”

_DING!_

_1:23._

A deafening ring blasted through her headphones, prompting Ladybug to toss it away as she covered her ears from the traumatizing sound. It took a toll on her steady vision, her eyes focusing and blurring in a nonstop cycle. Her throat clenched, her screams of concern for Chat Noir stuck in wordless limbo. Her last memory were two very familiar voices before her vision faded into blackness, her last thought lingering on her partner.

_“Congratulations, Trainee Ladybug and Trainee Chat Noir. You have passed Operation: Trust Exercise.”_

_“Agent Plagg! Why did you use Sleeping Soundwaves on them?”_

_“Agent Tikki–“_

_“Go pick them up, right now!”_


End file.
